"Whipping Post" is a song by The Allman Brothers Band. Written by Gregg Allman, the five-minute studio version first appeared on their 1969 debut album The Allman Brothers Band. The song's full power manifested itself in concert, when it was the basis for much longer and more intense performances. That version was captured in the Allman Brothers' classic 1971 double live album At Fillmore East, where a 22-minute rendition of the song takes up the entire final side. It was this recording that garnered "Whipping Post" spots on both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list and Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Gregg Allman was 21 years old when the song was first recorded. Its writing dates back to late March 1969, when The Allman Brothers Band was first formed. Gregg had failed to make a name for himself as a musician during a late-1960s stint in Los Angeles, and was on the verge of quitting music altogether when his brother Duane Allman called and said his new band needed a vocalist. Gregg showed the band 22 songs he had written, but only "Dreams" and "It's Not My Cross to Bear" were deemed usable. Gregg, the group's only songwriter at the time, was commissioned to create additional songs that would fit into the context of the new band, and in the next five days he wrote several, including "Whipping Post".
Gregg's travails in the music business would provide the thematic inspiration for the new song, which was written quickly on an ironing board cover: He later said: "It came so fast. I didn't even have a chance to get the paper out. That's the way the good songs come—they just hit you like a ton of bricks."
The blues rock song's lyrics center on a metaphorical whipping post, an evil woman and futile existential sorrow. Writer Jean-Charles Costa described the studio version's musical structure as a "solid framework of [a] song that lends itself to thousands of possibilities in terms of solo expansion. ... [It is] in modified 3/4 time, building to a series of shrieking lead guitar statements, and reaching full strength in the chorus supported by super dual-lead guitar." The result was called by Rolling Stone an "enduring anthem ... rife with tormented blues-ballad imagery".
Musically, the composition was immediately noticeable for its use of 11/4 time signature in the introduction. (It is also sometimes described as 11/8, and band drummer Butch Trucks called it simply "a lick in 11" or "elevens".) As Gregg Allman later said:
"I didn't know the intro was in 11/4 time. I just saw it as three sets of three, and then two to jump on the next three sets with: it was like 1,2,3—1,2,3—1,2,3—1,2. I didn't count it as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. It was one beat short, but it didn't feel one short, because to get back to the triad, you had two steps to go up. You'd really hit those two hard, to accent them, so that would separate the threes. ... [Duane] said, 'That's good man, I didn't know that you understood 11/4.' Of course I said something intelligent like, 'What's 11/4?' Duane just said, 'Okay, dumbass, I'll try to draw it up on paper for you.'"
The original "Whipping Post" was recorded for The Allman Brothers Band album on August 7, 1969, at Atlantic Recording Studios in New York City. Adrian Barber was the producer, and the band spent the entire full-day session getting the song's performance to their liking. The album was released on November 4, 1969, but sold poorly, barely reaching the bottom rungs of the U.S. albums chart. "Whipping Post" was placed last on the album's running order, in what writer Randy Poe described as "the classic tradition of leaving the listener wanting more".
The At Fillmore East performance of the song changed its public perception. It was recorded at New York's famed Fillmore East venue during the band's second show there on March 13, 1971. Duane Allman begins to introduce the tune – "Berry starts her off" – then a fan yells out "Whipping Post!" Duane responds, "You guessed it," and Berry Oakley starts it off with the powerful, rumbling elevens-based time bass guitar opening, which Rolling Stone would say gave the song its "haunting momentum" and which would become one of the most familiar bass patterns in all of rock.
Soon, Duane and then Dickey Betts' dual lead guitars peal in, before Gregg Allman's Hammond organ joins as well. Gregg delivers a gritty vocalization culminating in the anguished chorus:
"Sometimes I feel ... sometimes I FEEL
Like I been tied to the whipping post!
TIED to the whipping post!
TIED to the whipping post!
Good Lord, I feel like I'm dyin'..."
The vocal parts are spread throughout the 22 minutes, separated by lengthy instrumental segments. The verses are in 12/8 while the choruses in a slow 6/8 (with the last chorus in a still slower tempo) while the stinging interludes immediately after the vocal parts revert to the elevens-based time. The rhythms underneath the guitar solos start slow and then build up in complexity and volume until their climaxes.
Duane Allman takes the solo after the first verse and chorus, playing a furious series of knife-like crescendoes against the Allmans' trademark percussive backing, augmented by Betts' rhythm guitar part. Gregg Allman comes back to sing the second verse and chorus five and a half minutes in, after which Betts takes the lead for the long middle part of the performance and Duane reverts to rhythm guitar. Betts plays his metallic-toned scales building to a wailing, shuddering climax at the 10-minute mark. But instead of staying in the expected form of the song and returning to the vocals, here the band takes an unexpected turn. The dynamics are reduced to almost complete quiet and the tempo slows down and then almost disappears into an abstract, rhythmless, free time segment during which, around the 11:05 mark, Betts briefly plays what would become the main melody to "Les Brers In A Minor" from 1972's Eat A Peach..
Betts plays simple, soulful light jazz styled melodies against Oakley's melodic bass line, with Duane Allman supplying moody chords in counterpoint along with the occasional organ wash from Gregg Allman. The guitarists work in blues quotes (Betts does "You Better Stop It Babe") à la Sonny Rollins, classical music motifs, and bell sounds. Poe writes that this section is a "leap into the unknown ... it feels as though everything could simply fall apart at any second, but Dickey continually pulls things back together at what ... seems to be the last possible moment"[ before building into a slow, tragic crescendo of psychedelic blues riffs. Finally after the 15-minute mark there is a recapitulation of the introduction and, pulled in by Oakley, a series of dual guitar whiplashing crescendoes; the band comes to a dead stop and Gregg Allman jumps in near the 17-minute mark for the third anguished iteration of the chorus — only to leave it unfinished.
Again, the tempo drops to near nothing, and when Betts plays a fragment of "Frère Jacques", Duane again counterpoints while the rhythm section has the major role. Duane leads the guitarists to find a joint lullaby whose emotive changes play against Butch Trucks' percussive tympani washes. The psychedelic blues riffs crescendo in the lower register and then drop off; this whole segment of the performance has a Middle Eastern tinge. At 21 minutes in, Gregg Allman comes back for the fourth and last time, sighing "Oh, sometimes ... oh sometimes" and then completing the unfinished chorus with a final, "Lord don't you know, that I feel, Oh like, like I'm dyin' ..." Duane then leads the band to a brief thrashing finish.
"Whipping Post" is a song by The Allman Brothers Band. Written by Gregg Allman, the five-minute studio version first appeared on their 1969 debut album The Allman Brothers Band. The song's full power manifested itself in concert, when it was the basis for much longer and more intense performances. That version was captured in the Allman Brothers' classic 1971 double live album At Fillmore East, where a 22-minute rendition of the song takes up the entire final side. It was this recording that garnered "Whipping Post" spots on both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list and Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Gregg Allman was 21 years old when the song was first recorded. Its writing dates back to late March 1969, when The Allman Brothers Band was first formed. Gregg had failed to make a name for himself as a musician during a late-1960s stint in Los Angeles, and was on the verge of quitting music altogether when his brother Duane Allman called and said his new band needed a vocalist. Gregg showed the band 22 songs he had written, but only "Dreams" and "It's Not My Cross to Bear" were deemed usable. Gregg, the group's only songwriter at the time, was commissioned to create additional songs that would fit into the context of the new band, and in the next five days he wrote several, including "Whipping Post".
Gregg's travails in the music business would provide the thematic inspiration for the new song, which was written quickly on an ironing board cover: He later said: "It came so fast. I didn't even have a chance to get the paper out. That's the way the good songs come—they just hit you like a ton of bricks."
The blues rock song's lyrics center on a metaphorical whipping post, an evil woman and futile existential sorrow. Writer Jean-Charles Costa described the studio version's musical structure as a "solid framework of [a] song that lends itself to thousands of possibilities in terms of solo expansion. ... [It is] in modified 3/4 time, building to a series of shrieking lead guitar statements, and reaching full strength in the chorus supported by super dual-lead guitar." The result was called by Rolling Stone an "enduring anthem ... rife with tormented blues-ballad imagery".
Musically, the composition was immediately noticeable for its use of 11/4 time signature in the introduction. (It is also sometimes described as 11/8, and band drummer Butch Trucks called it simply "a lick in 11" or "elevens".) As Gregg Allman later said:
"I didn't know the intro was in 11/4 time. I just saw it as three sets of three, and then two to jump on the next three sets with: it was like 1,2,3—1,2,3—1,2,3—1,2. I didn't count it as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. It was one beat short, but it didn't feel one short, because to get back to the triad, you had two steps to go up. You'd really hit those two hard, to accent them, so that would separate the threes. ... [Duane] said, 'That's good man, I didn't know that you understood 11/4.' Of course I said something intelligent like, 'What's 11/4?' Duane just said, 'Okay, dumbass, I'll try to draw it up on paper for you.'"
The original "Whipping Post" was recorded for The Allman Brothers Band album on August 7, 1969, at Atlantic Recording Studios in New York City. Adrian Barber was the producer, and the band spent the entire full-day session getting the song's performance to their liking. The album was released on November 4, 1969, but sold poorly, barely reaching the bottom rungs of the U.S. albums chart. "Whipping Post" was placed last on the album's running order, in what writer Randy Poe described as "the classic tradition of leaving the listener wanting more".
[Live At the Fillmore East](https://hooktube.com/watch?v=YSuoW8MTbZY) 22m58s.
The At Fillmore East performance of the song changed its public perception. It was recorded at New York's famed Fillmore East venue during the band's second show there on March 13, 1971. Duane Allman begins to introduce the tune – "Berry starts her off" – then a fan yells out "Whipping Post!" Duane responds, "You guessed it," and Berry Oakley starts it off with the powerful, rumbling elevens-based time bass guitar opening, which Rolling Stone would say gave the song its "haunting momentum" and which would become one of the most familiar bass patterns in all of rock.
Soon, Duane and then Dickey Betts' dual lead guitars peal in, before Gregg Allman's Hammond organ joins as well. Gregg delivers a gritty vocalization culminating in the anguished chorus:
"Sometimes I feel ... sometimes I FEEL
Like I been tied to the whipping post!
TIED to the whipping post!
TIED to the whipping post!
Good Lord, I feel like I'm dyin'..."
The vocal parts are spread throughout the 22 minutes, separated by lengthy instrumental segments. The verses are in 12/8 while the choruses in a slow 6/8 (with the last chorus in a still slower tempo) while the stinging interludes immediately after the vocal parts revert to the elevens-based time. The rhythms underneath the guitar solos start slow and then build up in complexity and volume until their climaxes.
Duane Allman takes the solo after the first verse and chorus, playing a furious series of knife-like crescendoes against the Allmans' trademark percussive backing, augmented by Betts' rhythm guitar part. Gregg Allman comes back to sing the second verse and chorus five and a half minutes in, after which Betts takes the lead for the long middle part of the performance and Duane reverts to rhythm guitar. Betts plays his metallic-toned scales building to a wailing, shuddering climax at the 10-minute mark. But instead of staying in the expected form of the song and returning to the vocals, here the band takes an unexpected turn. The dynamics are reduced to almost complete quiet and the tempo slows down and then almost disappears into an abstract, rhythmless, free time segment during which, around the 11:05 mark, Betts briefly plays what would become the main melody to "Les Brers In A Minor" from 1972's Eat A Peach..
Betts plays simple, soulful light jazz styled melodies against Oakley's melodic bass line, with Duane Allman supplying moody chords in counterpoint along with the occasional organ wash from Gregg Allman. The guitarists work in blues quotes (Betts does "You Better Stop It Babe") à la Sonny Rollins, classical music motifs, and bell sounds. Poe writes that this section is a "leap into the unknown ... it feels as though everything could simply fall apart at any second, but Dickey continually pulls things back together at what ... seems to be the last possible moment"[ before building into a slow, tragic crescendo of psychedelic blues riffs. Finally after the 15-minute mark there is a recapitulation of the introduction and, pulled in by Oakley, a series of dual guitar whiplashing crescendoes; the band comes to a dead stop and Gregg Allman jumps in near the 17-minute mark for the third anguished iteration of the chorus — only to leave it unfinished.
Again, the tempo drops to near nothing, and when Betts plays a fragment of "Frère Jacques", Duane again counterpoints while the rhythm section has the major role. Duane leads the guitarists to find a joint lullaby whose emotive changes play against Butch Trucks' percussive tympani washes. The psychedelic blues riffs crescendo in the lower register and then drop off; this whole segment of the performance has a Middle Eastern tinge. At 21 minutes in, Gregg Allman comes back for the fourth and last time, sighing "Oh, sometimes ... oh sometimes" and then completing the unfinished chorus with a final, "Lord don't you know, that I feel, Oh like, like I'm dyin' ..." Duane then leads the band to a brief thrashing finish.
"Whipping Post" is a song by The Allman Brothers Band. Written by Gregg Allman, the five-minute studio version first appeared on their 1969 debut album The Allman Brothers Band. The song's full power manifested itself in concert, when it was the basis for much longer and more intense performances. That version was captured in the Allman Brothers' classic 1971 double live album At Fillmore East, where a 22-minute rendition of the song takes up the entire final side. It was this recording that garnered "Whipping Post" spots on both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list and Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Gregg Allman was 21 years old when the song was first recorded. Its writing dates back to late March 1969, when The Allman Brothers Band was first formed. Gregg had failed to make a name for himself as a musician during a late-1960s stint in Los Angeles, and was on the verge of quitting music altogether when his brother Duane Allman called and said his new band needed a vocalist. Gregg showed the band 22 songs he had written, but only "Dreams" and "It's Not My Cross to Bear" were deemed usable. Gregg, the group's only songwriter at the time, was commissioned to create additional songs that would fit into the context of the new band, and in the next five days he wrote several, including "Whipping Post".
Gregg's travails in the music business would provide the thematic inspiration for the new song, which was written quickly on an ironing board cover: He later said: "It came so fast. I didn't even have a chance to get the paper out. That's the way the good songs come—they just hit you like a ton of bricks."
The blues rock song's lyrics center on a metaphorical whipping post, an evil woman and futile existential sorrow. Writer Jean-Charles Costa described the studio version's musical structure as a "solid framework of [a] song that lends itself to thousands of possibilities in terms of solo expansion. ... [It is] in modified 3/4 time, building to a series of shrieking lead guitar statements, and reaching full strength in the chorus supported by super dual-lead guitar." The result was called by Rolling Stone an "enduring anthem ... rife with tormented blues-ballad imagery".
Musically, the composition was immediately noticeable for its use of 11/4 time signature in the introduction. (It is also sometimes described as 11/8, and band drummer Butch Trucks called it simply "a lick in 11" or "elevens".) As Gregg Allman later said:
"I didn't know the intro was in 11/4 time. I just saw it as three sets of three, and then two to jump on the next three sets with: it was like 1,2,3—1,2,3—1,2,3—1,2. I didn't count it as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. It was one beat short, but it didn't feel one short, because to get back to the triad, you had two steps to go up. You'd really hit those two hard, to accent them, so that would separate the threes. ... [Duane] said, 'That's good man, I didn't know that you understood 11/4.' Of course I said something intelligent like, 'What's 11/4?' Duane just said, 'Okay, dumbass, I'll try to draw it up on paper for you.'"
The original "Whipping Post" was recorded for The Allman Brothers Band album on August 7, 1969, at Atlantic Recording Studios in New York City. Adrian Barber was the producer, and the band spent the entire full-day session getting the song's performance to their liking. The album was released on November 4, 1969, but sold poorly, barely reaching the bottom rungs of the U.S. albums chart. "Whipping Post" was placed last on the album's running order, in what writer Randy Poe described as "the classic tradition of leaving the listener wanting more".
Live At the Fillmore East 22m58s.
The At Fillmore East performance of the song changed its public perception. It was recorded at New York's famed Fillmore East venue during the band's second show there on March 13, 1971. Duane Allman begins to introduce the tune – "Berry starts her off" – then a fan yells out "Whipping Post!" Duane responds, "You guessed it," and Berry Oakley starts it off with the powerful, rumbling elevens-based time bass guitar opening, which Rolling Stone would say gave the song its "haunting momentum" and which would become one of the most familiar bass patterns in all of rock.
Soon, Duane and then Dickey Betts' dual lead guitars peal in, before Gregg Allman's Hammond organ joins as well. Gregg delivers a gritty vocalization culminating in the anguished chorus:
"Sometimes I feel ... sometimes I FEEL
Like I been tied to the whipping post!
TIED to the whipping post!
TIED to the whipping post!
Good Lord, I feel like I'm dyin'..."
The vocal parts are spread throughout the 22 minutes, separated by lengthy instrumental segments. The verses are in 12/8 while the choruses in a slow 6/8 (with the last chorus in a still slower tempo) while the stinging interludes immediately after the vocal parts revert to the elevens-based time. The rhythms underneath the guitar solos start slow and then build up in complexity and volume until their climaxes.
Duane Allman takes the solo after the first verse and chorus, playing a furious series of knife-like crescendoes against the Allmans' trademark percussive backing, augmented by Betts' rhythm guitar part. Gregg Allman comes back to sing the second verse and chorus five and a half minutes in, after which Betts takes the lead for the long middle part of the performance and Duane reverts to rhythm guitar. Betts plays his metallic-toned scales building to a wailing, shuddering climax at the 10-minute mark. But instead of staying in the expected form of the song and returning to the vocals, here the band takes an unexpected turn. The dynamics are reduced to almost complete quiet and the tempo slows down and then almost disappears into an abstract, rhythmless, free time segment during which, around the 11:05 mark, Betts briefly plays what would become the main melody to "Les Brers In A Minor" from 1972's Eat A Peach..
Betts plays simple, soulful light jazz styled melodies against Oakley's melodic bass line, with Duane Allman supplying moody chords in counterpoint along with the occasional organ wash from Gregg Allman. The guitarists work in blues quotes (Betts does "You Better Stop It Babe") à la Sonny Rollins, classical music motifs, and bell sounds. Poe writes that this section is a "leap into the unknown ... it feels as though everything could simply fall apart at any second, but Dickey continually pulls things back together at what ... seems to be the last possible moment"[ before building into a slow, tragic crescendo of psychedelic blues riffs. Finally after the 15-minute mark there is a recapitulation of the introduction and, pulled in by Oakley, a series of dual guitar whiplashing crescendoes; the band comes to a dead stop and Gregg Allman jumps in near the 17-minute mark for the third anguished iteration of the chorus — only to leave it unfinished.
Again, the tempo drops to near nothing, and when Betts plays a fragment of "Frère Jacques", Duane again counterpoints while the rhythm section has the major role. Duane leads the guitarists to find a joint lullaby whose emotive changes play against Butch Trucks' percussive tympani washes. The psychedelic blues riffs crescendo in the lower register and then drop off; this whole segment of the performance has a Middle Eastern tinge. At 21 minutes in, Gregg Allman comes back for the fourth and last time, sighing "Oh, sometimes ... oh sometimes" and then completing the unfinished chorus with a final, "Lord don't you know, that I feel, Oh like, like I'm dyin' ..." Duane then leads the band to a brief thrashing finish.